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John Wayne became one of the greatest actors of all time during a career that lasted half a century.
From 1926-1976, Wayne created some of the best Western classics we have ever seen, including Red River (1948), True Grit (1969) and Rio Bravo (1959). He even had a secret cameo in 1977's Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.
But it was Wayne's 1956 film called The Searchers, directed by John Ford, that has been considered the best western movie of all time, landing No. 1 on the AFI's Top Ten Western Movies.
The movie, set during the Texas-Indian wars, follows Wayne's Ethan Edwards, a Civil War veteran, who spends years looking for his abducted niece (Natalie Wood) alongside his nephew (Jeffrey Hunter).
And The Searchers was a hit at the box office, grossing $4.8 million on a $3.75 million budget in 1956. The Western film did earn a Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes as well, with a score of 87%.
Wayne's son, Patrick Wayne, even won a 1958 Golden Globe for The Most Promising Newcomer - Male for the role of Lt. Greenhill in The Searchers.
The Searchers Ranked as John Wayne's Best Performance
While The Searchers wasn't the biggest movie of the year, Wayne certainly made his presence felt with his role as Ethan Edwards
In fact, the role was ranked as Wayne's best performance of all time on IMDb, topping other films such as The Shootist (2nd), True Grit (3rd) and Stagecoach (4th). Some even consider The Searchers to be his greatest film overall.
Fellow Western legend Clint Eastwood would agree that Wayne's performance in The Searchers was "one of his brilliant performances and brave."
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